Interpretation of dynamic mechanical measurements on butyl‐acrylate vinyl‐acetate based systems

Dynamic mechanical measurements have been performed in order to get information on the morphology of butyl‐acrylate (BuA)‐vinyl‐acetate (V Ac) based systems. The samples were obtained after emulsion polymerization by three different pathways: (a) Physical blending from homopolymer latexes (b) a conventional batch process leading to a BuA rich core‐V Ac rich shell latex particle (c) a two‐step polymerization leading to an abrupt concentration gradient Inside the particle. Films were obtained by evaporation of water at room temperature. The spectra of the films were interpreted with the help of Kerner's model, and new information has been obtained on the morphology: (i) in the simple blend (case a), the p(V Ac) latexes tend to coalesce to form the matrix; and (ii) it is possible to determine whether random copolymer formed during a polymerization process is located at the interface of p(BuA) and P(V Ac) (case b) or inside the p(BuA) inclusion (case c).